Nearly eight years after the idea first germinated and more than three years after the Federal Communications Commission proposed rules for it, the world’s first commercial white spaces network has finally come to fruition.

An aerial view of the TV white spaces deployment in Wilmington's Airlie Gardens. The technology will link four video cameras.

The network is scheduled to go live at 2 pm ET on Thursday in Wilmington, NC. The system is designed to show the feasibility and benefits of utilizing the spectrum located between TV channels for wireless data connections. Wilmington, which has been dubbed the “first FCC-approved smart city,” will also serve as a model for similar efforts elsewhere in the U.S. as well as in Cambridge, England, Canada, Finland and Singapore. Proponents say TV white spaces could eventually support a $100 billion ecosystem of devices and services – larger, even, than the Wi-Fi industry.

Those grand projections stem from white spaces’ ability to address two of Wi-Fi’s weaknesses: the technology’s short range and its trouble flowing through walls and trees. White space is located in a lower spectrum band than Wi-Fi. Its different physics mean signals can travel further and better penetrate barriers.

Because of those characteristics white space has been dubbed “Super Wi-Fi” and “Wi-Fi on steroids”. But concerns about possible interference with TV broadcasts meant sophisticated management systems needed to be created before white space spectrum could be used publicly.

Companies like Spectrum Bridge began testing those systems last year. Following a series of trials and FCC-mandated “comment periods”, Spectrum Bridge’s spectrum management platform is ready to direct devices to available white space channels. The network that will go live Thursday combines a Spectrum Bridge database with 1.5-lb. white space radios from KTS Wireless and access points and cameras from various vendors.

Wilmington was chosen as the site of the first commercial network because, as the first U.S. city to shift from analog to digital TV, it had early access to white spaces. Jim McDaniels, the Director of Parks and Gardens for New Hanover County, where Wilmington is located, said the city’s topology and coastal location made it an ideal testing ground. Wilmington was also willing to be a guinea pig for the new technology. The city has been testing various white space applications since 2010.

The local government is using the network to help power public wireless networks in two local parks (see below) and connect four video cameras in a popular public garden (see above). The wireless networks will let park visitors access the Internet on mobile devices for free. The cameras will be used for both observation and surveillance. Live-streamed broadcasts will enable people to view the garden’s flowers online while also letting workers remotely monitor areas like the garden’s parking lot for security.

An aerial view of the TV white spaces deployment in Wilmington's Hugh McRae Park. The technology will provide free wireless access to the public.

Wilmington officials say traditional Wi-Fi gear wouldn’t have worked in these outdoor deployments because it would have required erecting special poles or installing a number of access points. “We didn’t want to cut trees or put in a ton of hardware,” explained Leslie Chaney, Hanover County’s Information Technology Director, in an interview. “Traditional [solutions] were cost-prohibitive and intrusive.”

Instead, by utilizing white spaces, the four cameras at Wilmington’s Airlie Gardens can wirelessly link back to a hub unit located at the garden’s service center. The system is basically invisible to visitors and costs less than a Wi-Fi mesh system would, said Chaney. In its public wireless systems, Wilmington is using white spaces for backhaul -- basically, connecting access points to its core transmission network.